Modern De facto Slavery in America

As I am wont to do on occasion, I once again present you with the work of another fine blogger. This is from my blogging buddy P.L. Booth and his blog The View from Blue Eye, MO

MODERN DEFACTO SLAVERY OF AMERICA

By PL Booth,

Slavery is properly defined as: The state of one bound in servitude – as the property of a slaveholder or household or a mode of production in which slaves constitute the principal work force. In the simplest terms, slaves have no right whatsoever to claim the fruits of their own labors. Slaves work for someone else who gives them whatever they have, to eat, to wear, to use, to live in, etc. and who keep the profits derived from their labor.

Upon hearing the word slavery, many people, perhaps most, associate it with USA history; the US Civil War and black chattel slavery of those imported into the USA from the 16th through 18th centuries. To many it conjures mental images of black field hands laboring in the South, picking cotton, wearing rags, a bandanna wrapped around their head and white slave owners cracking the whip over the heads and backs of their slaves.

However, ancient history is not the subject of this article. Though illegal in just about every country in the world, chattel slavery most certainly still exists in the world, fortunately no longer here, but there are other forms equally as vile. Making something illegal doesn’t make it disappear. Herein I discuss the history and modern meanings of slavery in our time and how it affects us all.

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” –Thomas Jefferson

If even the source of ones livelihood might be forcibly taken, whether legally or not, is that not a loss of liberty and an enforced form of slavery? Confiscated by due process of law, perhaps, but taken nonetheless. We just don’t call it slavery because most everyone has agreed upon this form of governmental subjugation. If you actually think you own your house, etc. then stop paying the taxes assessed upon it and see how long it takes before someone else more willing to pay taxes takes possession of it.

How many farms and homes were lost to governments for non-payment of property taxes? It used to be a common theme for Saturday serial matinees but no more. Now we just get the government (or actual tax payers) to pay for it or lower interest rates through Fannie or Freddie or some other entity.

We invented the use of taxes in various forms for our mutual advantage to fund education and various other governmental services such as law enforcement. Although governments can now forcibly take properties to give to other entities that might pay higher taxes and enhance the revenues available to politicians, true liberty would require each recipient to pay specifically and only for the exact services each entity received or the expenses of their prosecution and incarceration as required.

Our modern “Entitlements” based form of social security and welfare arose because people feared the loss of even their most basic necessities to high taxes, low wages, and the inability of the so-called common man to put aside enough wealth to care for themselves in their old age. Roosevelt called Social Security the Old Folks retirement security fund. Now it is just a part of the vast entitlement and welfare system that affects virtually every facet of life in America. Entitlements exceed 60% of all the monies spent by the Federal Government and our national debt is several times our gross national product every year. Factually, Social Security hasn’t taken in as much as it has spent in several years nor has there ever been an actual savings account. The monies derived from SS were simply spent each year by greedy politicians to buy votes from the weak minded and ignorant voters who simply did not know where their monies were going.

There is also the bondage of debt even though much of it is self imposed, for individuals and for nations. Borrowing monies that can never be totally repaid or that must be repaid at usurious interest rates ties individual, even national, effort to the enrichment of others at the expense of relinquishing the fruits of ones’ own labors. That is a large reason China is growing precipitously and we are on the decline. They own most of our national debt and we pay them huge sums in the form of interest on that debt.

Of course, our pols cry “We are only indebted to ourselves!” but it isn’t true. When the Federal Banking system has to borrow enormous amounts of money each year, they “sell” bonds to back-up that debt and those bonds derive interest. Nor is there the slightest chance we will ever get out of debt so long as we “spend” far more than we take in.

That fact is the principal one the Progressive Socialists who call themselves Democrats want to substantially increase income taxes on everyone in the US. Of course, they say they only want to increase taxes on the “rich” since they have more and should bear a greater amount of the burden imposed on all of us by dishonest socialist politicians. But the top levels of income in the US (those above 1 million annual income – 1 in 6 of our population) already happen to be bearing far more than 1/2 of all the monies taken through income taxes.

What the Austrian school of Economics (and most people not socialist Dems) wants is for the numbers of higher income people to be increased as rapidly as possible so more monies will be generally available. Since lower income people (those who receive the various forms of welfare) pay no income taxes anyway (or vary low percentages), it is easy for the dishonest Dems to say they only want to keep those poor “middle-class” incomes from having to pay higher taxes. The greatest fight is about how to grow those higher income populations.

Today, many people live fragile existences in a struggle for financial survival and their American Dream can be ended by missing just a few paychecks. The carrot at the end of the stick formerly known as “the American dream” has been replaced by a whip best described as our American nightmare. You no longer work just to achieve a better life for yourselves and your children. You work to keep a roof over your head and pray that you don’t lose it because of oppressive taxation or bad policies being enforced from Washington. Most Americans are oblivious to the extent of taxation only seeing it happening each April 15. They aren’t told by politicians or the media that besides income tax, they are taxed for just about every action they take and item that they buy. Go over a bridge, pay a toll (tax); pay your utility bills, pay surcharges (taxes); buy a product, pay sales tax; buy a vehicle or fuel for a vehicle, pay federal and state taxes. And those taxes are invariably controlled by politicians supporting their favored programs.

Americans willingly become de facto slaves when fear replaces free incentives such as motivations to work for themselves. Our leftist media regurgitates liberal-left talking points generally disguised as news stories about the wealthy living it up while common men and women struggle to feed themselves and their children. The idea is older than Marxism. Create dissatisfaction to the point that people will seek out populist politicians who promise much whether or not they can deliver anything (a chicken in every pot.) Then the Pols ask for even more power for themselves and their puppet masters to cure the very problems they create.

The latest promise of a heaven on earth is Obama’s “Hope and Change” medical care plan. Though it is dressed up with flowery language and high-sounding platitudes, it is nothing more than a grand power grab of life-and-death decision-making. A friend asked me rhetorically: Why would Americans turn over their health and welfare – their very lives – to a bunch of crooked politicians who spend most of their time covering up, lying, cajoling and cheating, all in the name of power? How would you answer that?

Why indeed, are Americans so anxious to turn over life-and-death decisions to governments already proven incapable of managing even the smallest of programs? Could it be they prefer enslavement? Is it so much easier than self determination? Is Socialism really preferable to the free market system that once made us the envy of the world, the richest, freest nation in history? May God forbid it.

Although it was once commonly held that slavery was rare among primitive pastoral peoples and that it appeared in full form only with the development of an agricultural economy, there are numerous historical instances that contradict this belief. Domestic slavery and sometimes concubine slavery appeared among nomadic Arabs (who still practice it), among Native Americans who were primarily devoted to hunting, and among the seafaring Vikings to “serve” their farms in their stead. Some ascribe the beginnings of slavery to war and consequent subjection of one group by another.

Slavery as a result of debt, however, is evidenced in very early times with some peoples having had the custom of putting up wives and children as hostages for an obligation; if the obligation was unfulfilled, the hostages became permanent slaves. The Jewish nation arose from just such a servile existence. But the American experiment was to combat that idea and the ideals of individualism and American exceptionalism arose.

In 1863, the first Republican Party President, Abraham Lincoln, signed the historic Emancipation Proclamation, a document which changed the course of history for an entire group of people, an entire nation and an entire culture. It was intended to end the horrors of slavery by making ownership of human beings by other human beings, illegal. It has become a world famous document widely quoted and studied.

Unfortunately, a great many American citizens do not recognize the current revival of slavery as it is a bit more refined and less obvious enslavement. More and more Americans are willing to give up certain freedoms in return for uncertain promises of government largesse not realizing government can only give them what it takes from others. Most of these citizens don’t even realize what they’re doing or losing because the news and education media refuse to perform their role as purveyors of truth and accuracy. Our schools are culpable by re-educating our youth teaching them Socialistic values are the highest goals instead of the Christian values that grew our country.

Enslavement is not coming with a bang, but expands with a slow, relentless monotony. Each day, each week, each month, each year brings us closer to that state of de facto slavery as a result of our greed thinly disguised as “civil rights” and entitlements. Ask most Americans and they will tell you that food, clothing, shelter and other necessities are “rights,” not just necessities but rights to which they are entitled and that must be provided by an omnipotent government.

Even when actually warranted, government charity most often morphs into government nightmares. For example, President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s “Great Society” poured billions of taxpayer dollars into programs that have done more damage to the American family than any other public handout. The government pays women who bare children a monthly allowance based on the number of children in the household. The program and its underwriters failed to understand that the way the program’s requirements were structured, millions of men no longer required for familial support were freed to leave home and in fact decided that the need for marriage was trumped by their need – or desire – for “free” money.

Then, rather than retreat from such obvious government mal-run social programs, succeeding presidential administrations and numerous lawmakers willingly continue to embrace spending programs that at best do not solve the problems they were created to solve. At worst they create additional societal problems. But they do buy votes from their new slaves so those lawmakers can remain in office. The current Free Healthcare Program of Obama and the Democrats is a classic example. Allow the Feds to say who gets what medical attention and how much is to be paid for it and intelligent Doctors will quickly realize they are better off not becoming Doctors or going into other professions.

All socialism is a form of enslavement and its practitioners and advocates need to be removed from positions of power and authority as quickly as possible.

PL Booth, The Blue Eye View of MO, 12/10/2010

Full Story Here: The View from Blue Eye, MO

I hope you enjoyed this and will pay Mr. Booth a visit on occasion!